Beth-lebaoth

Beth-lebaoth ("house of lionesses") was a Simeonite Negev town named in Joshua 19:6: "And Beth-lebaoth, and Sharuhen; thirteen cities and their villages." The parallel list in 1 Chronicles 4:31 calls the same site "Beth-birei" — the two names probably reflect alternate traditions about the same Simeonite settlement. The "lionesses" of the name suggest the town was located in territory where lions still roamed in biblical times, before extensive deforestation eliminated their habitat. The exact site is uncertain but lay in the western Negev between Beersheba and the Philistine frontier.